George Skelton: Gov. Brown says it's OK for a drunk to own a gun

By George SkeltonLos Angeles Times columnist

Posted:
10/20/2013 09:00:00 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, second from left, gestures to a pair of semi-automatic rifles as he discusses a package of proposed gun control legislation at a Capitol news conference in Sacramento, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Steinbergs's SB374 which would have banned future sales of most semi-automatic rifles that accept detachable magazines, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

One thing I don't get: If people kill people -- guns don't -- why is it OK for a perpetually drunken person to own a gun? Gov. Jerry Brown thinks it is.

A drunk with a gun is double-barreled trouble.

Studies show that a gun owner with one misdemeanor conviction -- such as a DUI -- is five times more likely to commit a violent crime with a firearm than a gunner with no prior arrest record, according to Garen Wintemute, director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.

But Brown vetoed a bill that would have added repeated alcohol and drug offenses as reasons for denying gun ownership. Two DUIs or other misdemeanor substance abuse convictions within three years and you couldn't possess a firearm for 10 years.

Not even the gun lobby aggressively opposed that legislation, SB755 by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis.

Brown, in his veto message, said: "I am not persuaded that it is necessary to prohibit gun ownership on the basis of crimes that are non-felonies, non-violent and do not involve misuse of a firearm."

I asked the governor's office for some elaboration. The response: "The message speaks for itself."

So the message is that the governor doesn't see why a convicted drunk or druggie shouldn't be armed.

"I was just stunned," Wintemute says. "He was just wrong on the facts. There is persuasive evidence out there. There are dozens of studies associating acute alcohol intoxication and a history of DUIs with the risk of committing future gun violence. That's established beyond doubt."

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Wintemute, an emergency room physician who has been researching firearms violence for three decades, adds, "Of all the gun bills proposed this year, SB755 might have been the one to have the largest effect on crime rates. We missed a chance to do some good here."

It's not like a new concept was being proposed. In California, a third DUI is a felony. And under federal law, a felony results in a lifetime ban on gun ownership.

Wolk tried to talk to Brown about the bill, but her request was denied.

Neither did Brown confer with the author of the legislative session's most high-profile gun bill before vetoing it. That measure was the main target of the National Rifle Association, which considered it Draconian and threatened to sue if the governor signed it.

The bill, SB374, by Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, would have banned the sale of most semiautomatic rifles capable of accepting detachable magazines. Those already in existence would have had to be registered.

Steinberg's goal was to close a loophole used by gun manufacturers to skirt California's assault weapons ban.

"I don't believe that this bill's blanket ban on semi-automatic rifles," Brown said inaccurately in his veto message, "would reduce criminal activity or enhance public safety enough to warrant this infringement on gun owners' rights."

Brown was wrong. There would not have been a "blanket ban" on semiautomatic rifles. Some small-caliber guns -- mostly .22s -- would have been exempt.

Nevertheless, there was some rationale for the veto, unlike with the drunken gunner bill. Many semiautomatic rifles have detachable magazines that hold only three or four rounds. It would be more difficult to turn those into mass-killing machines than if the shooter were feeding the gun with 10-round magazines, the legal limit in California.

Brown correctly pointed out that the proposed ban would have covered "low-capacity rifles that are commonly used for hunting, firearms training and marksmanship practice."

The gun lobby was grateful, but some of Brown's Democratic base exploded.

"Gov. Brown chose to put craven political considerations above the safety and well-being of California's more than 38 million residents," declared Paul Song, chairman of the Courage Campaign, a liberal activist group.

"Next time there is a murder with an assault weapon, the governor will have blood on his hands. ...This is the kind of cowardly behavior we expect from our NRA-owned elected officials in Washington, not from a California Democrat."

The governor should have signed the bill, but there were valid reasons not to. And that liberal outfit's reaction was every bit as extreme as the gun lobby's on previous occasions.

Brown regards himself as a defender of gun rights. He's the proud owner of an inherited 12-gauge shotgun, a .38 police special and a .22 rifle. And he enjoys plinking on his ancestral ranch near Colusa.

He also remembers the political advice that his father, former Gov. Pat Brown, gave him: "Don't mess with a man's car or his guns."

Of course, we've messed with cars and guns a lot since Pat Brown's day. And California is better off for it.

In signing or vetoing 18 gun bills, Brown hit the mark on many.

He was on target signing a bill banning "repair kits" that convert legal magazines into those holding more than 10 rounds, and another measure requiring psychotherapists to quickly report to police any patient who threatens someone. Also in approving bills requiring rifle buyers to undergo safety training and guns to be locked up in homes where felons and the mentally ill live.

And he was right to veto a bill that would have required a gun owner to report a firearms theft within a week. Some people don't look at their guns for years.

The Legislature should send Brown another bill denying gun ownership for drunks and druggies. But limit the ban period to five years. And hand him some research.